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Huawei and TELUS deploy live 3GPP-oriented network at the “5G Living Lab”

Burnaby, BC, June 27, 2017--(T-Net)--TELUS and Huawei, one of the world's largest information and communications technology companies, announced today that they have achieved a significant breakthrough with the successful completion of a 5G wireless connection using the global 3GPP technology standards platform.

As operators and vendors race towards the global deployment of 5G, this successful pilot represents one of the most advanced connections yet made using technologies that will form the standard for global 5G.

The successful pilot not only demonstrates the dramatically faster wireless speeds customers will enjoy as 5G technology becomes mainstream over the next three years (which will be up to 200 times faster than current LTE networks), but it also showcases the potential for 5G technology to deliver Wireless-to-the-Premise (WTTx) connectivity with speeds and reliability necessary to power the smart homes and businesses of tomorrow.

The pilot network was set up to reflect a real-world point-to-multi-point connection over commercial central office equipment and transport networks. The network leveraged equipment based on 3GPP 5G foundational technologies over a 28 GHz connection, although the 5G standards body will not be finalized until early 2018.

“We are extremely proud that Canadian-led talent and expertise is at the forefront of global 5G research and technology deployment. This is an incredibly rewarding accomplishment for our joint TELUS and Huawei teams who have worked hard to bring truly state-of-the-art technologies to life,” said Eros Spadotto, Executive Vice-president of Technology Strategy. “These advancements will help TELUS drive industry partnerships, develop yet-to-be-invented 5G applications and advance the 5G ecosystem with the ultimate goal of enabling future capabilities that will dramatically improve the lives of Canadians in our ever-changing digital society.”

The pilot is part of TELUS and Huawei's 5G Living Labin Vancouver, where both companies have been trialling next-generation technologies since 2015, in a live real-world setting.

The Living Lab is playing an important role in advancing global 5G development by making a number of significant technological breakthroughs. Last year it achieved blazing-fast speeds of 30 Gbps in a controlled environment andsuccessfully deployed a Heterogeneous Network (HetNet) in Downtown Vancouver. This latest achievement demonstrates a real-world point-to-multi-point connection with the low latency and reliability needed to power the next generation of home services.

These ground-breaking trials are laying the foundation for 5G, which will enable the likes of driverless cars; smart cities; new innovations in healthcare; as well as yet-to-be-imagined applications, devices and services powered by astonishingly fast and reliable wireless connections.

“This achievement is an important step forward in aligning our research efforts in 3GPP 5G standard with the practical application for building and deploying 3GPP unified 5G networks around the world” said Dr. Wen Tong, Huawei Fellow, and CTO Huawei Wireless based at the Canada Research Centre in Ottawa. “For the past several years, our Canadian team has played a key global leadership role in 5G. To achieve this successful trial in Canada with a Canadian partner is a powerful reflection on Canada's 5G innovation capabilities.”

5G wireless technology is expected to become commercially available beginning in 2020, however, TELUS customers living in the Vancouver area will have early access to some of the most cutting-edge wireless technologies in the world thanks to advancements made at the 5G Living Lab.

About Huawei

Huawei is a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider. Huawei's 178,000 employees worldwide are committed to bringing advanced communications technologies to operators, enterprises and consumers around the world. Huawei's innovative ICT solutions, products and services have been deployed in over 170 countries. Founded in 1987, Huawei is fully owned by its employees, and has been recognized by Fast Company magazine as one of the world's most innovative companies.

In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and retirees have contributed over $482 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered more than 1 million days of service to local communities since 2000. TELUS' 12 Canadian community boards and 5 International boards have led the Company's support of grassroots charities and have contributed more than $60 million in support of 5,595 local charitable projects, enriching the lives of more than 2 million children and youth, annually. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition. TELUS has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the past 16 years, a feat unequalled by any other North American telecommunications company. As detailed in our TELUS Sustainability Report, our commitment to sustainability is inspired by nature to ensure a healthier future for us all.

TELUS is a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, with $10.3 billion of annual revenue and 12.6 million customer connections including 7.2 million wireless subscribers, 3.6 million wireline network access lines